


The Tale of Three Princes

by BarnowlNiza



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft - Fandom
Genre: Creeper Hybrid!Dream, Dream's mask is annoying, Ender Dragon Hybrid!Phil, MCC11!, MCYT AU, Phantom Hybrid!Grian, Piglin Hybrid!Technoblade, Techno goes utterly mad, Technoblade Hears Voices (Video Blogging RPF), how do you tag, more characters to be added as story progresses, there will be some swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarnowlNiza/pseuds/BarnowlNiza
Summary: What's this? A full length book (maybe)? Yep!This is a MCYT and Hermitcraft AU.The Bloodend Empire lost its heirs through various means, and Emperor Philza has spent the last 20 years looking for them, refusing to name someone as a new heir, insisting that his adopted sons were still alive and out there.The heirs are indeed still alive, though they don't know that they are the heirs to the largest hybrid sanctuary in the universe
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 176
Kudos: 542





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so I'm going to try to have an update schedule for this, I have about 2 chapters prewritten right now, but I'll like keep working on writing this. I'm going to try to update every week, so if a week has passed and there is no update, feel free to drop a comment *nicely* asking if I remembered to update.
> 
> But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the prologue!

Three brothers. Three princes. The oldest, stolen away. The second caught in an explosion and believed to be dead. The third disappeared through a portal. They each ended up in different places. The oldest in a never-ending war, being trained to fight. The second forced to kill the ender dragon again and again for her scales and egg by a black market business. The youngest, taken by beings of old, trained to hide his identity in order to protect worlds. All of them in places they shouldn't be, but are.

Years passed. Eventually, the oldest broke free of the war. He settled down as a small farmer, trying to put war behind him. But he unintentionally started a war with a neighboring farmer. A war fought not with blades, but with farming and sabotage.

The second rose through the ranks of the business, being one of the only ones to survive so long. He was soon able to take a break, so he started a small server that quickly grew, and one of the only rules, do not defeat the ender dragon. Chaos and friendly war began as the second prince joined in, having fun for the first time he could remember.

The third and youngest remained with the beings that had taken him, his identity concealed, past forgotten. He was sent to protect their first world, an established server of about 20 people. They became a funny, chaotic gremlin who loved to pull pranks and was always happy.

But while they escaped their pasts, one thing they could never escape was the kingdom that needed them. This is, _The Tale of Three Princes_


	2. Chapter 1 - Technoblade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, people will probably be ooc because I can't watch everyone, but I'll try my best!

Techno was thirsty for blood. He's spent weeks preparing for this moment. The firework hit Tubbo in the chest, killing him, Schlatt, and Quackity. Techno turned and started firing at the gathered crowd when he heard their sounds of outrage, causing many people to explode into bursts of color. He tridented off the stage, landing in a nearby lake, watching the chaos unfold. He saw his ally, Wilbur, approach the stage that Jschlatt and Quackity had returned to, but at this point, he couldn't care less.

"Blood for the blood god" He whispered, sneaking up behind someone, he wasn't sure who, stabbing them in the back, watching as their blood-soaked the ground below him.

"Technoblade, why are you doing this?" Wilbur cried out, turning his attention to Techno.

"War. War and anarchy. It's what I live for!" Techno roared, rising to his full height, holding the Axe of Peace threateningly, his robe billowing behind him.

"We can call Dream on you Technoblade," Schlatt warned, any rivalry with Wilbur forgotten as he stared down the bloodthirsty man below him. "He'll take care of you"

"Dream can't do anything to me! I've fought in endless war and never died once. I was trained by the best of the best. I could fight all of you and still win!" He laughed, eyeing the patchwork of armor being worn by the people around him. "But I think that it is time I go." He continued, putting away the Axe of Peace and flying away with his trident. As he reached his base, he leaned against the wall and sighed, a brief spell of fatigue overcoming him, 

Techno closed his eyes, feeling his alliance with Wilbur and Tommy shattering into billions of pieces. He was alone again.

When Techno opened his eyes again, they were burning with a fiery passion. Alone was exactly how he preferred to fight. As he pushed off the wall, Techno laughed, the sound echoing through his base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm going to try to update on Sunday's and Thursday's (In EST time). There's no particular reason for these days, I just wanna update then. If I haven't updated on one of those days and I haven't previously said anything about not updating, feel free to leave a polite comment about it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and have a great day!
> 
> ~Niza


	3. Chapter 2 - Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, almost forgot to update-

Dream woke up with a start, adrenaline coursing through him as he tried to identify what had woken him up. He heard frantic knocking at his front door, which caused him to get up immediately, slipping a green hoodie on and fixing his mask over his face. _No one_ knocked on his door unless it was important

As he walked to his front door to open it, he heard voices on the other side yelling. "Dream, please answer!" He heard the distinct voice of Tommy call.

Opening the door, Dream said, "What is it Tommy-" Dream paused as he saw who was outside with Tommy, "-Wilbur, Schlatt, Fundy?"

"It's Technoblade. He's gone mad!" Tommy frantically yelled, looking around as if Techno was going to pop out of the bushes and slaughter them all.

"What do you mean he's gone mad?" Dream asked, alarmed as he gestured for the four to come inside.

"Well, it was during the festival. Schlatt had Techno execute Tubbo," Wilbur sent a glare towards Schlatt, "And then he started fucking murdering everybody!"

"Did you try telling him to stop?" Dream asked, trying to get the full story as he sat in a chair.

"Did we try asking him to stop." Tommy mocked, "Why didn't we think of that! Yes we fucking asked him to stop, but he didn't!" Dream let out a small hiss of frustration, sounding very much like a creeper. He was not in the mood to deal with Tommy. When Tommy heard the hiss he jumped up and looked around warily. "You don't have a creeper problem in this place, do you?"

"Well, that depends." Dream smiled, though Tomy couldn't see it with his mask, and leaned forward, "Would be being a creeper hybrid count shaving a creeper problem?" Tommy gaped for a moment before sitting back down silently, ignoring the amused faces of his companions. "What happened next?" Dream addressed the other three in the room.

"Well, I told him that I'd get you to take care of him," Schlatt answered, "but he said that you couldn't do anything to him and that he had lived through endless war, I believe?" He looked to Fundy for confirmation, the fox-hybrid nodding in agreement.

"Hmm." Dream pondered what Schlatt said. "I must admit, I'm surprised you guys are being civil with each other" He directed the question to Wilbur and Schlatt.

"It's Technoblade." Wilbur spoke up, "He'll destroy the whole server if he isn't banned. I don't want that to happen. I just wanted to destroy Manburg."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Dream said before holding up a finger. "But, I cannot ban him. Let me explain." He added quickly, seeing that Tommy looked about ready to demand why. "I added techno to this server to help him. You said he said he had been in an endless war?" Dream looked at Schlatt. "Well, that's the truth. I helped him escape the war between," Dream hesitated for a split second, "hunts. I helped him get a small farm so he could escape from those that trained him. But he got into a war with his neighbor about who could farm the most potatoes--, you've seen that he's been obsessed with them," Dream nodded to Wilbur and Tommy. "His name made the news and they found him again. So I invited him to join the Dream SMP." Dream stood up and looked at the four other people in his house, who were also starting to stand up. "I'll go talk to him, but no, I will not ban him after I've given him sanctuary. He needs time."


	4. Chapter 3 - Grian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some world-building!

"Have you guys heard of the Tale of the Bloodend Princes?" Ren asked, putting away his guitar. The HEP was hosting a get together to take a break from the war raging the shopping district. A majority of the hermits had shown up, including the entire Mycelium Resistance (Though HEP didn't know that), to a camp out in the remote areas of the server. 

"I can't say that I have!" Scar commented. "I would certainly like to hear it!" Agreement sounded through the other hermits, who were all sitting around a large fire.

"Alright, I'll tell you the story." Ren smiled before be began his tale.

"The story starts about 20 years ago, in the Bloodend Empire, a sanctuary for hybrids. The emperor of this empire, Philza, had adopted his three heirs. Their names were not revealed to the public, as Emperor Philza believed them to be too young. But they would never be revealed. For a mere few months after they had been adopted, the oldest vanished in the middle of the night, without a trace. The middle child was next, a month after that. The emperor had taken the two princes on a small outing, not unlike the one we are on now. There was an attack, and the middle was lost in an explosion and is believed by most to be dead, though they never found a body. Finally, the youngest fell through a portal and disappeared."

"How old were they when they disappeared?" Xisuma asked as Ren paused to take a sip of water.

"None of them were older than 5 when they were lost," Ren said sadly, hanging his head, an action that was repeated by the other hermits.

"Is there any more to the story?" Grian asked, leaning forward on his log. 

"Nothing but rumors. Some people say that princes are dead and that Emperor Philza needs to stop looking for them and announce a new heir. Others say that the princes are still alive today, even the second oldest, and are somewhere in our universe today."

"Which rumor do you think is most accurate?" Impulse questioned.

"I don't know," Ren admitted. "I don't want to believe the princes are dead, but at the same time, I feel like they must be. Why else would they have not reappeared yet?"

"How do you know this take if the rest of us have never even heard of the Bloodend Empire?" Mumbo asked.

"My parents lived in the Bloodend Empire when I was born, so I grew up there. I was 10, helping my father while I was still in school." Ren took another sip of water before asking, "So, does anyone else have a story to share?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say that I love reading everyone's comments and will almost always respond to them, so I encourage you guys to comment if you want to share your opinions on this book. Also, if you want to see a scene, comment it and I'll see if I can put it in. The only plans I have for my book are how I generally want the plot line to progress, so you guys can have an influence on this!
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> ~Niza


	5. Chapter 4 - Technoblade

Techno was out trident hunting again. He had his riptide trident, and that worked just fine for flying through the air, but it wasn't a practical weapon. He killed a drowned as his communicator buzzed. He looked down at it annoyed before swimming up and climbing into his boat to read it.

_Dream whispers to you: We need to talk  
You whisper to Dream: We are talking  
Dream whispers to you: In person  
You whisper to Dream: Only if you social distance  
_ _Dream whispers to you: Just get over here Techno  
You whisper to Dream: Where is here?  
Dream whispers to you: Your base  
You whisper to Dream: Fine  
You whisper to Dream: Y'know, it would be faster if it were raining_

Much to Techno's delight, it started raining and his communicator buzzed once more.

_Dream whispers to you: Just this once_

Techno grinned and flew through the air with his trident, after picking up his boat, his compass in one hand and trident in the other. He flew back to his base and saw Dream waiting for him next to his wheat farm. "I'm surprised it's not potatoes" Dream commented dryly as Techno landed in front of him.

"Well, there's a potato farm in Pogtopia, and the wheat is for my cows."

"Interesting. Is there anywhere we can sit and talk out of the rain?" Dream questioned. 

"The ground?" Techno replied, "We could stay here or we could go over to my cows if you feel like talking over them? Oh, we could also sit with the horses."

"Where's your base, base though? Surely we can talk there?"

"I'd rather not. I think here, with the cows, or with the horses will work just fine."

"Fine, we'll stay here then." Dream sat down on the ground, "I will say Techno, you're not as bloodthirsty as Tommy described you as."

"The taste of blood has gone stale and its scent faded," Techno replied, sitting down smugly, flaring his robes out dramatically as he did so. He wasn't expecting Dream to have given in so easily. Techno would have expected Dream to at least try and convince Techno to go to his base, but he wasn't about to have some casual steal all of his stuff.

Dream quietly snorted at the piglin-hybrids actions, seeming to not know that Techno could hear him. Dream was lucky that Techno wasn't in the mood to murder anyone yet. "So, you aren't going to kill me then?" He cautiously asked.

"Well, I never said I wouldn't." Techno grinned, "But I suppose I won't kill you yet."

"Great." Dream leaned forward and Techno suddenly wished that Dream didn't have his mask on. This seemed like a serious conversation, and it was very hard to take him seriously with it on. "So, Techno, I want to know what happened at the festival. Schlatt and Wilbur are allied against you now, and-"

Techno cut Dream off, "I don't need you to tell me that the world is against me Dream. I'll tell you what happened at the festival. Schlatt put me in a high-stress situation, which, for the record, I do not handle well, by having me kill Tubbo. I did so, accidentally killing Schlatt and Quackity in the process. Then, the scent of blood reached me, and my instincts took over. I couldn't stop myself, I needed," Techno hesitated, "I needed the taste of blood" He finished quietly.

"I see," Dream nodded, and he seemed to ponder something. "Well, I'm not going to ban you, but you should probably keep your distance from the others for a bit."

"Really, I couldn't have guessed." Techno rolled his eyes. "If that's all..."

Techno looked at Dream and saw his mask change from a smile to a from for a brief moment. "Oh yeah, that's it. See you later, Techno!" Dream got up and walked off, seeming to be distracted. 

A few minutes after Dream had left, Techno got up, caught on the mask change. He shrugged to himself, knowing he wouldn't get answers from Dream any time soon. He dropped down into his base, all thoughts of trident hunting gone. He stared blankly at a wall, unsure of what to do before his inter-server communicator dinged

_< Noxcrew> Minecraft Championship teams announcement in 5 minutes! Halloween costumes WILL be required for the event!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and remember that I love reading everyone's comments!
> 
> ~Niza


	6. Chapter 5 - Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 200 Kudos and almost 2k hits? Thank you guys so much for all the support!

_Kill him_ Nightmare whispered within the mindscape. 

_No! I don't need to die today_ Dream shouted back

_Let me take control, I can take him._

_Stop it Nightmare_ Dream hissed his counterparts name like it was the worst thing in the world, which it was.

"If that is all.." Dream distantly heard, as he rememebered that he had been talking to Technoblade. 

Dream felt Nightmare briefly take control before he took it back as fast as possible, hoping that Techno didn't see the mask change. "Oh, yeah, that's it. See you later Techno!" Dream quickly got up and walked off, not wanting Nightmare to start a fight with Techno. 

Dream argued with Nightmare as he wandered through the server, passing many of his friends without agknowledging them, missing the hurt looks on their faces as he passed them without even a hello. 

Dream collapsed on the ground once he was safely in his base, taking on his mask and leaning against the wall with exhaustion. His communicator dinged, and it took him a second to realize that it was from his inter-server communicator. 

_< Noxcrew> Minecraft Chamionship Teams Announcement in 5 minutes! Halloween costumes WILL be required for the event!_

Great, now he had to find a costume to wear for the Championships that he totally didn't forget about. Dream dozed off for the five minutes between the last message and the message announcing the first team. As the teams were announced, Dream scanned the group of people, not paying attention to who was on which team, only looking for which team he was on. There! The Fuschia Frankensteins? What kind of name was that? He was in a team with George, Sapnap, and Karl though, so that was a plus. Flipping through his inter-server communicator, he saw that Karl had made a group chat with the team.

_< KarlJacobs> Winner POV pog!_   
_< Sapnap> Don't get cocky Karl_   
_< Dream> So, any costume ideas?_   
_< Dream> They said it's required_   
_< Sapnap> We could inverse our skin colors?_   
_< GeorgeNotFound> How about no_   
_< Dream> Reverse our skins?_   
_< Sapnap> Fundy and Wilbur's team is already doing that_   
_< Sapnap> Just talked to Fundy_   
_< KarlJacobs> What if we wore Hogwarts uniforms!_   
_< Sapnap> I second that_   
_< GeorgeNotFound> I'm good with that_   
_< KarlJacobs> Dream?_   
_< Dream> Yeah, we can do that_   
_< Dream> Great idea Karl!_   
_< Sapnap> I call being Gryffindor!_   
_< GeorgeNotFound< Karl, you're a Hufflepuff_   
_< KarlJacobs> Yeah, probably_   
_< KarlJacobs> Dream, you're def a Slytherin_   
_< Dream> Works for me_   
_< Dream> That makes George a Ravenclaw_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I just want to quickly say that I may not post chapter 6 on Thursday, and potentially even next Sunday due to me not having finished writing it yet. It's definitely a long chapter with lots of world-building, and I need this stuff to happen in this chapter because reasons. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and remember that I love reading all of your comments and I'll try to reply to as many as possible!
> 
> ~Niza


	7. Chapter 6 - Grian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grian takes a trip to the Bloodend Empire for worldbuilding purposes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I was going to post this on Thursday, but it was Thanksgiving and it also took forever to type up. (Because I handwrite all my first drafts). But this chapter is a lot longer than the others, so hopefully that makes up for it!

"Hey G! How are you?" Ren called to Grian, who was checking his profits in the barge.

"Ren! Just the person I was hoping to see!" Grian responded with a large grin, "And I'm doing great, how about you?" He added, answering the question Ren had asked him. 

"I'm doing great as well G, thanks for asking! And what can I do for you?" Ren leaned against one of the support pillars of the barge, having joined Grian on the large floating shop. 

"Well, I was hoping to learn a bit more about the Bloodend Empire" Grian started, throwing his shulkerbox of shines into his ender chest.

"I can definitely help you with that! Do you want to come over to my base? I have books about the Empire there"

"Sure! Beats standing around the barge!" Grian pulled out his fireworks and took off, flying straight up out of the barge, Ren following close behind. Heading into the nether, Grian let Ren take the lead as they flew over to Ren's portal.

The duo entered the sandstone hut and Ren guided Grian to some pillows on the floor near a small bookshelf. "So," Ren started, "Is there anything you particularly want to know about the Bloodend Empire?"

"Well, I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of hybrids the princes were?" Grian asked, almost nervously, though he wasn't sure why.

Ren's expression darkened a little at the question, "Well, it's not common knowledge, and I only know because Doc's parents are guards in the castle, and they told Doc, who told me, but the princes were confirmed to be hostile mob hybrids. They hadn't grown into their hybrid features yet, so there was no safe way of telling what kind of hybrids they were."

Grian nodded absentmindedly, trying to remember his life before the watchers. They had said that he had been with them for a long time, but just how long? He shifted his glamoured bone wings as he thought of his hybrid status. What if he was one of the princes?

Ren seems to somewhat guess Grian's train of thought because he followed up with, "You're not thinking about that phantom incident back in season 6 are you? Cuz that's not really a hybrid thing if it was temporary."

"It wasn't temporary though" Grian whispered, letting the glamor on all of his hybrid features fall, "My wings grew in right around the time of the phantom hunt." He refused to look up at Ren, knowing that his eyes were fully green and almost glowing, and his face was mostly the bluish-purple of a phantom. 

"But why did they grow in so late?" Grian glanced up and saw Ren looking at him concerned. Grian was a little surprised that Ren didn't flinch seeing his eyes, and he hesitantly looked back up. 

"I really don't know" Grian answered, "I can't really remember too much before joining Hermitcraft, just bits, and pieces. I knew that I had gotten magic from somewhere, I learned the glamor charm from one of the books that appeared in my enchanting set up." Grian lied a little bit about his memory situation, he knew he got his magic from the watchers, but he couldn't tell Ren that. 

"But why hide the fact that you're a hybrid?" Ren asked.

"I just, I just felt like I needed to. I don't know why though.." Grian trailed off.

"Well, you don't need to hide it here!" Ren replied happily. Ren went quiet for a moment before asking, "Do you want to visit the Bloodend Empire?"

"That would be really cool!" Grian exclaimed, his mood changing almost instantly, "what's the architecture like there?" He asked though he knew that no matter what style the empire was built in, he would still enjoy it.

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" Ren replied standing up and helping Grian up.

"Why'd you offer to take me out of the blue like this?" Grian asked, more out of curiosity than anything.

"Well, I'm a little overdue on visiting my family, and I thought that you might want to come with, seeing as you're a hybrid and all, man. I literally had this idea a few moments ago, dude" Ren laughed.

"Well, it was a good idea!" Grian responded with a small chuckle, "So, how do we get to the Bloodend Empire?"

"Well, first we need to go to the hub wold, then it's a short trip to the Empire's portal!" Ren answered Grian as they walked through Ren's portal to quickly get to spawn, where the portal to the hub world was. However, neither of them knew which portal would take them from the nether to spawn, so instead, they went through the shopping district portal and flew over to the spawn island. Or at least, where the spawn island used to be.

"Where did the island go?" Grian circled over the empty space where the island had been. "We're in the right place, right?

"Dude, X removed the island and made a really cool room underneath, remember?" Ren said before diving down into the water, Grian following much more cautiously. 

"I only sort of remember him talking about this," Grian responded to Ren as he gently touched down on the red and white launch pad. He had forgone using his elytra, instead, using his wings, which he hadn't flown with for a while, causing them to be sore after the somewhat short flight through the nether. "I must not have been paying attention when Ex-eye-zooma was talking about this." He laughed, looking around the room a little.

"You obviously weren't" Ren responded with a laugh. "The hub portal's over here," He said, walking over to the grey portal opposite the nether portal. Ren gestured for Grian to go in before him, giving a mock bow. Grian smiled as he walked up to the portal, laughing quietly at Ren's antics. He stopped half a block from it and hesitated. He didn't go to the hub world often, and he hadn't ever been with his hybrid features not glamoured. "You okay G-man?" Ren quietly asked.

Grian turned to look at Ren, "Yeah, but, could, could we go through at the same time? Its, it's been a while since I've been to the hub world, and I've, well, I always, uh," As Grian fumbled for his words, Ren seemed to understand what he was trying to convey.

"Of course G!" Ren stepped next to Grian and took his hand reassuringly, "On the count of three, okay?" Grian nodded and Ren started counting, "One," Grian looked at the portal and took a deep breath in. "Two," Grian let the breath out, feeling a little calmer, "Three!" Grian and Ren stepped into the portal at the same time, and Grian felt the effects of the portal kick in. 

~.oOo.~

On the other side of the portal, Grian dropped Ren's hand as he leaned on the portal frame, nausea caused by the portal lingering, "That felt worse than a nether portal" He groaned, pushing himself up. 

"You need to visit the hub more dude," Ren replied with a small smirk, completely unaffected by the portal. "You ready to get going?"

"Yeah, I think so," Grian answered, glancing out the window of the small building the Hermitcraft portal was in. He checked to make sure he had his keycard that was needed to re-enter the building as he followed Ren out. 

The two hermits walked through the hub world, Grian trying to avoid making eye contact with the players around, and keeping his wings folded tightly on his back to avoid hitting anyone. He couldn't help but try to see if there was anyone he knew in the crowd, his small stature making it difficult. He thought he saw a familiar blue shirt and headed towards it, faintly aware of Ren following close behind. "Taurtis!" He called, catching up to the blue-shirted, black-haired, headphone-wearing man. 

"Grian?" Taurtis paused and looked around, searching for the source of the voice. "Grian!" He exclaimed, spotting the small hybrid. "Your hybrid features grew in!"

"Yeah! It took a really long time but it finally happened!" Taurtis wasn't a hybrid, Grian knew that, but he couldn't remember exactly when and where he had met Taurtis. He was fairly certain that the watchers were involved somehow. 

"Well, I'm glad they did!" Taurtis ruffled Grian's hair light-heartedly being a good amount taller than the hybrid.

"You two know each other?" Ren asked, catching up to the reunited friends and walking to the left of Grian.

"Yeah!" Grian responded happily "We met in, uh-" Grian looked to his right at Taurtis who also seemed to be struggling to remember where they met.

"Wasn't it like right before you went into Project EVO?" Taurtis recalled, "I think we bumped into each other the night before you left." 

"Oh yeah! And they wouldn't let you join yet so I made the summoning platform!"

"Wasn't Evo a server that had self-destructed?" Ren interrupted the two. 

"Self-destruct?" Taurtis looked down at Grian, "Did it self-destruct?"

"I think they emoved the world after the Project was done?" Grian hesitantly said. 

"That must have been it!" Taurtis glanced around at his surroundings before saying, "Shoot! I passed the portal I had to get to! See you later Grian and Grian's friend who I was never introduced to!" Taurtis ran off in the opposite direction.

"See ya Taurtis!" Grian called after him.

"The portal to the Empire is over here," Ren guided Grian over to the large building that he assumed housed the portal to the Bloodend Empire. Many hybrids were entering and exiting the building. The duo walked through the large open archway and got in the line to go through the portal. Luckily they weren't in line for long, and they made it through the portal, right after a phoenix and cat hybrid talking loudly about some... writing championships?

When they had gotten through the portal, Grian had to stop for a second just looking at the builds around him, while also recovering from the portal travel. Until Ren pulled him away from the portal so the next group could get through. Once they were safely out of the way, Ren let Grian just look around. The portal seemed to be located close to the center of the main area, not too far from the large castle looming over them on a hill. The buildings surrounding the portal were just as impressive. Grian quickly identified the architecture style as Scandinavian Medieval, a style he didn't see used a lot anymore in builds. 

Ren let out a soft chuckle and Grian turned to him, "You done admiring the architecture? I told my parents we'd meet them at a restaurant near their house. My brother might be there too."

"Awesome!"

After a little bit of walking, they reached the restaurant that they were meeting Ren's family at. Ren's parents, both dog hybrids, introduced themselves as Addison and Isacc Daugh. When they were all seated at a table, a waiter came up to them. "Hello, I am Xavier and I will be your waiter this evening!" Xavier looked at the group and grinned. "Mrs. and Mr. Daugh! The usual I assume?"

"Yes sweetheart, thank you!" Mrs. Daugh replied kindly and Xavier turned to the other three.

"And what may I get you?" She asked, smiling down at them as they jotted down Ren's parents' orders. 

"I'll have the cod please!" Jono, Ren's brother responded closing his menu as Xavier wrote his order down.

"I'll have the caesar salad today please!" Ren told Xavier, who wrote it down and turned to Grian.

"Oh, uh, I'll have the chicken strips, please" He stuttered out, not fully prepared to be put on the spot. 

"Alright! I'll be back with everyone's food shortly! Would you like some water?" He asked, putting his notebooks away. 

While the five of them waited for their food, Ren's parents asked Ren about how Hermitcraft was going, grian occasionally chiming in. When their food arrived, they started eating, and Grian asked, part of the way through the meal, "Why do you guys still build in the Scandinavian Medieval style if things have evolved and other styles are more common?"

"Well," Mr. Daugh started, "We've been building in this style for so long that it doesn't feel right to try and switch styles."

"That makes sense," Grian nodded thoughtfully. "So, if the build style were to change, what do you think it would change to?"

"Personally, I think that if someone managed to convince the builders to change styles, I think that it would probably change to a more modern style, given that many of the builders build modern in their own worlds."

When the group finished their meals and Mrs. Daugh paid, they left the restaurant and Ren hugged his parents and brother. "It was great seeing you guys, but it's starting to get a little late and I promised Doc I'd stop by before we went back to Hermitcraft!"

"It was great meeting you guys and thank you so much for the meal!" Grian thanked, giving the family an awkward wave.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Grian!" The three gave the two hermits one last wave before turning around and walking off.

"Doc said that he'd meet up outside of the castle gates," Ren said as the duo walked back towards the portal.

"Why there? Why wouldn't we meet him at his house?" Grian asked, walking next to Ren. He felt more comfortable with his hybrid features now, after seeing all the other hybrids around him. 

"Well, Doc lives in the castle because he's a part-time guard and redstoner there," Ren replied, glancing at Grian, probably making sure he was still there. They were both short enough that it was easy to lose each other in a crowd. 

"Is that why Doc hasn't been on Hermitcraft as much recently?"

"Yeah, someone broke into the castle a while back and almost managed to steal some important maps or something. The emperor increased the number of guards so it wouldn't happen again."

"That makes sense," The two walked in a comfortable silence for the rest of the somewhat short walk to the castle. 

"Hey Ren, Grian!" Doc called when they reached the castle gates. His large smile briefly fell as he took in Grian's appearance before it was back. "Ren didn't tell me you were a hybrid! He just said you wanted to learn more about the empire!"

"Well, I do want to learn more about the empire! I just happen to be a hybrid as well. My hybrid features grew in around the time of the phantom hunt in season 6, and I just hid them afterward..." Grian trailed off, shifting his weight between his legs.

Doc had nearly the same reaction as Ren, although he didn't question why Grian had hidden it. "Why did your hybrid features grow in so late?"

"I really don't know..." I don't know much about hybrids at all, so..." Grian looked down at his feet and Ren patted his back, above his wings, gently. 

"Well, luckily, when my parents aren't on duty, they spend a lot of time in the library, so they can probably answer any questions you have," Doc said leading them inside the walls of the castle. Doc led them through the halls and Grian could only stare at the beauty that was the architecture.

When they reached the library, Doc greeted the person sitting at the circulation desk, an owl hybrid of some sort, Grian guessed, based on the yellow eyes and wings, and honestly, he thought, who else would work in a library?

"My parent's shift should end soon, you guys can explore the library if you want," Doc said, heading straight for a book, seeming to be a redstone book if the cover was anything to go by, before sitting on a chair near a blazing fire burning strong in a fireplace. Grian gazed up at the rows of books in front of him, not sure what to read. Even if he did know, he wouldn't know where to look. 

"Do you need help with anything?" The librarian asked as Grian noticed that Ren was browsing the shelves. 

"Uh, could you show me where the history section is?" Grian figured that the castle library probably had the most info on the history of the empire. 

"Of course! Follow me!" The librarian walked out from behind the desk and guided Grian over to the history section. "Enjoy your reading, Grian!"

"Thank you-" Grian trailed off, not knowing the librarian's name.

"Niza and I go by they/them pronouns," They supplied, and Grian filed the info about their pronouns away. Niza turned to walk off when Grian had a thought. 

"Wait, how did you know my name?"

Niza smirked as they turned back around. "Magic poof." They said mysteriously with a small laugh before walking off, heading back to the circulation desk. Grian turned to the bookcase in front of him, scanning the titles for something that might encompass the whole history of the Empire. There! _A Brief History of the Bloodend Empire_. Grian pulled the book off the shelf and briefly glanced at the original publication date. Good, it was recent. He brought the book over to the sitting area and sat across from Doc, facing away from the door. He noted that Ren was probably still looking for a book, but didn't think too much of it, instead, opening his book and beginning to read.

A few minutes into reading, Grian heard the library doors open and close again. He wouldn't have been paid much attention to it, apart from the fact that Doc jumped up and bowed, "Emperor Philza" he greeted as Grian got up and bowed as well after realizing who had walked in.

"Please rise" the emperor chuckled, "And please just call me Phil." Grian rose from his bow and got his first look at the ruler of the kingdom. He didn't look that much like royalty. If Grian had seen him in the hub world, he would have passed him off as a normal person. Or, well, a normal hybrid, he amended, seeing the large black dragon wings resting on his back. Grian thought he recognized him from previous Minecraft Championships, though he hasn't attended many, and he never really paid attention to anyone outside of his team unless they were trying to kill him of course. "Oh, Doc!" Phil said, seeming to recognize the creeper hybrid. "You fixed some of the redstone that had been tampered with yesterday, didn't you? What are you up to now?"

"Yeah, that was me," Doc nodded, "And we're just waiting for my parent's shift to be over. It's Grian's first visit to the Empire, and he was interested in learning about the history of it." Both Doc and Grian had sat back down, and Phil was scanning a bookcase.

"Really now! I'd love to help, but I just need to grab a book before I head to a meeting I have in 5 minutes." Philza seemed to find the book he was looking for because he leaped up and grabbed a book off the top shelf, completely ignoring the ladder, and gently floated back down to the ground, giving the hermits a farewell wae before exiting the library. 

About 5 minutes later, the library doors opened again, and Doc got up yet again, this time walking over to his parents and giving them a hug in greeting, "Mom, Dad, this is Grian and Ren, two of the hermits." He introduced. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you both!" Doc's mom said happily.

"The pleasure is ours" Ren answered for Grian. 

"So, I heard you wanted to learn more about the history of the Bloodend Empire?" Doc's father asked as if to confirm that that was the case.

"Yes sir," Grian responded, "I've been reading A Brief History of the Bloodend Empire, but I do still have a few questions."

"That book is a good place to start." Doc's father nodded before sitting in a chair near Grian's. "And we'll probably know the answers to your questions, so ask away!"

"Well, the first question I had was _why_ was the Bloodend Empire formed? The book briefly mentioned that it was because of a conflict between hybrids and normal players, but it wasn't really explained."

"Well, as the book mentioned, this empire was formed shortly after the fall of the gods. Many of the gods had hybrid forms or hybrid champions, so hybrids were blamed for it." Doc's father started, leaning back in his seat and smiling. "So, Regna, who would later become the first emperor, took some of his hybrid friends to an abandoned world and started building the empire. He would go out on missions to bring hybrids back to the empire, to save us. "

"That's really cool!" Grian exclaimed, "But why was it named the Bloodend Empire?"

"I can answer this one" Doc's mother spoke up, "The empire was named for the two things the hybrids of the time wanted: Blood from those who put them down, and access to the original end, the home of the gods before they fell. The original end was and still is, guarded by the admins. But the hybrids of the time felt that they should be the ones to guard it because after all, many of the gods' champions were still alive. Today, we still feel that we should guard the end because while none of the champions are still alive today, their legacy lives inside us."

Grian nodded, unsure of what to say, "I have one more question." He opened his book to the page with the map of the modern-day empire. "I was looking at this map and comparing it to older maps when I noticed that the empire hasn't expanded eastward for centuries. I understand not expanding sough as much because of the mountains, but why not east?"

At the question, both of Doc's parents sighed. "Well, we don't know as much about this as we do other things because there just isn't enough info available to us, but what we've pieced together is that there are some ancient ruins that direction from something. There's a wall on that side of the empire built years ago to make sure we don't go over there, I've seen Emperor Philza occasionally fly in that direction, and each time he comes back he has a minor injury and he looks more tired than he did before." Doc's father said.

"Huh, that's pretty interesting. I'd like to know more about those ruins, but there's probably not much more to know. At least, not info available to the public. Anyways, me and Ren should probably be heading back to Hermitcraft now! It was great meeting you both!"

"And it was great meeting you! Feel free to stop by if you're free and have any questions!" Doc's mother waved as Ren and Grian stood up.

Grian went over to the circulation desk, "Could I check this book out?" He asked Niza.

"Of course!" Niza took the book as Grian held it out and removed a sheet of paper that was in a pocket at the back of the book, "We're pretty lax on due dates, so I just need you to write your name and communicator number on his paper. You can come back and return it when you are done with it. However, if someone else needs the book, then we'll message you about getting it back" Gria nodded and filled out the required sections of the paper and Niza stamped it. Grian turned to leave with Ren and as they were exiting the library, Niza called after them, "Oh, you might want to bring the book to the next MCC!"

Grian was about to turn back to ask them what they meant but the library doors shut before he could say anything, and Ren just pulled him away. "Doc said to just do what they say and to not ask questions. He mentioned that Niza had recommended that he bring a certain item along on a mission once, and the item he brought had saved his life. Without Niza, he would have died."

"Wow," Grian breathed, "Do you think this book is going to save my life?" He joked. 

"Honestly man, probably not," Ren replied, "but it will probably be somewhat useful to you at MCC. Speaking of which, I think they're going to be announcing teams soon."

"Well, if we get the notification, we can just wait until we get back to Hermitcraft. I'm really tired and I don't think I could check my communicator and walk at the same time."

"Yeah, let's just ignore any messages we get until we get back to Hermitcraft. I'm practically dead on my feet dude."

And so the two hermits made their way back to Hermitcraft, ignoring the one message that they got as they were going back to the hub:

_< Noxcrew> Minecraft Chamionship Teams Announcement in 5 minutes! Halloween costumes WILL be required for the event!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm going to have to switch to only updating on Sundays because I've run out of pre-written chapters, and the chapters will hopefully be longer from here, though probably not as long as this one. That being said, I may also have to switch to every other Sunday in the future depending on chapter lengths


	8. Chapter 7 - Technoblade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this last chapter, but if you have a hybrid persona, and you want to make a cameo in the Bloodend Empire, feel free to drop a comment below and let me know! Last chapter had 3 cameos!

Techno made his way to the MCC server portal, swiping his keycard to enter the building that housed the portal. Upon exiting the portal on the other side, Techno saw that, like usual, he was one of the first ones there. The Noxcrew team had asked that people arrive a little earlier than normal, so other people would most likely be arriving soon. Techno sat down out of the way, pulling out his Greek Mythology book and rereading the story of Theseus. The fake fangs required for his vampire costume felt strange and foreign in his mouth, but he resisted the urge to take them out. 

Soon enough, the next group of people came through, it surprisingly being the trio of hermits. It's not that they were ever late, but they never arrived so early for the event. Techno was just close enough that he could hear them talking with his hybrid hearing. "Grian, I don't see why you would need to hide your hybrid features again. We _know_ that people competing are okay with hybrid, look at how many hybrids participate!" One of the hermits, who Techno recalled to be Ren, was saying.

"But my wings give me an unfair advantage, and I don't want anyone to freak out about my eyes," The other male hermit, Grian, replied, "When I glamour my wings I can't use them."

"Then just glamour your wings" The third hermit, False, a two time MCC champion, seemed to butt in, "You'll be wearing the anime Bdubs smile mask over your face anyways!"

Anime Bdubs smile mask? Techno didn't even want to know. He tuned out of the conversation he had been eavesdropping on, and messaged his teammates, asking them where they were. Kara and Puffy replied that they were just leaving, and TapL said that he was almost there. 

Eventually, everyone participating in the event had arrived, 15 minutes before the event was supposed to begin. "Thank you all for arriving early!" One of the event Admins, Techno didn't know who said, their voice reaching all the corners of the map, "Due to a few changes in our technology, we must require all participants to submit a sample of DNA, whether it be hair or a blood sample, along with the number of the communicator you were given when you first joined the server. This is to ensure that respawns go more smoothly and to ensure that everyone is who they say they are!" Murmurs arose from the crowd, but no one seemed to be against it. "Stations are set up to the left of the map, just follow the shoreline!"

Techno moved with the group of players and got into the line to give a blood sample. He didn't want anyone having his hair, that just seemed weird to him. People having his blood? Yeah sure, why not. People having his hair? Hell no. 

"Communicator number?" The person taking his blood sample asked as Techno held his hand out to get his blood drawn. 

"Uh, T324" He pulled out his communicator using one hand to check, not wincing as he felt the prick of the needle.

"Alright, thank you!" The person said Techno just noticed that they had a nametag that said Oreo on it. Oreo wrote down his communicator number on an official-looking form and put that and his blood sample in an envelope labeled 'Technoblade'.

As Techno walked back to the main area of the server, he noted Philza walking between the booths, seeming to be checking in on things. he recalled meeting Phil during his potato war with Squidkid, the man had taken an interest in how much he had been farming. He had also been teamed with Phil in an MCC with Wilbur and Tommy.

Techno chilled with his teammates while everyone gave their DNA sample, and he waited near the bridge when the countdown began, jumping up and down the pillars that would represent the team standings once the game began. He talked to his team about strategies over the voice chat they were all in. The admins had somehow made it so that you had to be in a voice chat with someone to be able to hear them, an astounding bit of technology. It activated 5 minutes before the event started to allow teams that extra bit of strategizing. 

Techno glanced up at the large countdown on the front of the decision dome and saw that there were only 30 seconds left until they could enter the dome. Here we go. Everyone had started crowding the edge of the bridge waiting for the other side to drop. It was all techno could do to not get pushed off as he stood balanced on the safety railing, waiting for when he would be able to jump onto the other bridge.

3...  
  
2...

1...

The horn went off, and everyone rushed into the dome, rushing to the elevator before realizing it was blocked off.

_Let the championships begin_ Techno thought with a smile, "Let's win this!" He shouted to his team as they were teleported, receiving a cheer in response. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and remember that I love reading comments!
> 
> ~Niza


	9. Chapter 8 - Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, the holidays were busier than I anticipated, especially considering I needed to basically rewatch Dream's MCC 11 stream to make this chapter as accurate as possible. Still, there are probably some inconsistencies between the stream and this chapter, but it's fanfiction so everything is fine!
> 
> Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
> 
> Edit: Accidentally called it chapter 9 instead of chapter 8 lol. Sorry if I confused anyone

The teams were all teleported into the voting area of the Decision Dome, "So, guys, what game do we want to play first?" Karl asked after they had revealed the games.

"Hole in the Wall, let's do Hole in the Wall" George suggested, preparing the through the egg at said game.

"Do we really want that first game though?" Dream asked, amidst the chaos. Karl and Sapnap were yelling about something and George was repeating 'Hole in the Wall' over and over. "What do we do?" He watched the other teams throw their eggs towards Hole in the Wall, "Let's do Hole in the Wall," Dream decided, throwing his egg, though it disappeared before it could land. 

The game didn't go too great, they got ninth in the game. They did a lot better in the second game, getting first in Sky Battle. Dream couldn't remember the third game, Rocket Spleef, very well, he just knew his team came in last for that game. the last game before the intermission, Ace Race, Dream felt that he did pretty well, the team tied for third. 

Overall, the Fuchsia Frankensteins were in second place, and on the road to dodgebolt, or witchbolt, as the Halloween-themed MCC had caused it to be renamed to. Dream sat out of the way of people, in a clearing of trees, with a few other people who didn't seem to want to deal with social interaction at the moment. Philza, Fwhip, and Krtzyy were all sitting about five blocks away from each other, leaning against various trees. Dream nodded at Pete as he came into the clearing as he took a sip of water. About half-way through their break, which Dream had spent somewhat dozing off, only to be startled awake by some of the people who had been taking their DNA rushing by him.

They immediately went up to Philza and started whispering excitedly to him. Dream couldn't tell what the medical staff were saying, due to them facing away from him. He could see Phil very clearly though. Phil grew very excited as they whispered to him, and he glanced over at Dream more than a couple of times.

Phil only said one thing, and Dream wasn't very good at reading lips, so all he could make out was "tell . . . after . . . over." A few of the staff nodded before they left. Dream wanted to ask Phil what it was about, but he wasn't very close to Phil, and Phil was entitled to his privacy. In addition, the break would be over soon and Dream had to meet up with his team again. 

The rest of the games passed by in a blur, and soon enough, they were in Witchbolt against the Blue Black Cats, which they won quickly. Dream, Sapnap, George, and Karl celebrated their win, the other teams congratulating them. Dream, fairly tired, wanted to head back to his base on the SMP, and so headed to the portal that would take him back to the hub, after checking out their statues in the Hall of Champions. However, one of the admins, Dream hadn't met them, held him back from entering the portal. 

"Not yet," They said, leading him away from the portal. Dream internally panicked. Was he about to be banned from MCC?

He watched as more and more people left the server, though he wandered around the server, making sure to stop by the Hall of Champions another time. 

He was wandering the outskirts of the server, exploring places he had previously ignored when his communicator dinged.

_[Noxcrew] DecLXIV: Could everyone please come to the Decision Dome?_

Everyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> ~Niza
> 
> P.S. Sorry for the shorter chapter btw, I didn't want to go too in-depth with all the games, otherwise, I wouldn't have finished the chapter today. (Yes, I wrote most of this chapter today)
> 
> P.P.S Comments make my day!


	10. Chapter 9 - Grian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I can officially say that this is the third-longest book I've written, not counting that 10k word oneshot I wrote on Wattpad. This book is 50 handwritten pages, I had to move from the folder I was using to keep the paper into a binder.

Grian had been asked to stay back after MCC by the admins and so he stood awkwardly next to the portal as he watched False and Ren go through. Technoblade got pulled aside not too long after as well, and Grian wondered why they couldn't leave. Grian would have taken off his mask, which was starting to get uncomfortable, but he wasn't super comfortable with revealing that he was a hybrid yet. Grian stared at the portal frame blankly for a bit, creating scenarios in his head where people found out he was a hybrid. Most of them involved him being hunted down in some way, so he stopped thinking about it after the fifth or sixth scenario.   
  
Grian looked around once he had snapped out of his thoughts and saw that there weren't many people left on the server. He noticed that Techno wasn't standing beside him anymore and it occurred to him that he hadn't even thought about walking around while he waited. Techno was sitting a little ways away from the portal, reading, and Grian, not knowing who else to talk to, or what to do, happily plopped down next to him, "Whatcha reading?" He asked.  
  
"Greek myths" Techno replied shortly, not looking up from his book.   
  
"Cool! Which myth?" Grian wanted to try to get a conversation going so he wasn't bored.  
  
"The story of Orpheus" Techno replied, his answer short again.   
  
"Cool!" Grian exclaimed before asking, "Who was he again?"  
  
"The music guy" Techno answered, sounding annoyed. Grian figured that he should probably leave the piglin-hybrid alone now. Luckily, there didn't seem to be many people that still needed to leave the server. The tab list showed that he, Techno, Dream, Phil, Tubbo, and CaptainSparkles were still on the server. grian stood up and decided to head over to the mini-golf area for a bit, passing the captain and Tubbo heading to the portal. Moments later, he heard his communicator ding and he read the message.  
  
 _[Noxcrew] DecLXIV: Could everyone please come to the Decision Dome?_  
  
Grian changed his course and ascended the bridge leading to the dome. He saw Phil standing towards the right of the entrance of the dome. Grian, not knowing what else to do, approached him, lightly bowing as he did so, "Emperor Philza" he greeted.  
  
"No need to bow, and remember, I told you to just call me Phil" He responded. Grian indeed did remember to call him Phil, but he felt like annoying the emperor.  
  
"Yes, Emperor Philza" Grian smirked under the mask and bowed mockingly. Phil laughed. Feeling a little more comfortable knowing there weren't many people left on the server and that he was with the literal ruler of the hybrid empire, Griantook off his Anime Bdubs smile mask. He wasn't quite ready to remove the glamour on his wings just yet. He had seen the less-than-subtle looks some hybrids had given him during his visit to the Bloodend Empire.   
  
A moment of silence spanned between the two as they waited for other people to show up before Phil spoke up, "Y'know, you can remove the glamour on your wings now. I'm not sure how you have the magic to do that, but no one here on the server right now will dislike you for your wings."  
  
"Are you sure?" Grian asked though he did let the glamour down. Phil made him feel safe, Grian didn't know why, but he didn't feel the need to know.  
  
"I have wings and you don't see me being hated on" Phil smiled and flapped his wings for emphasis.  
  
"Yeah but you're like, royalty!" Grian protested. Phil smiled a little sadly and looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Grian shuffled a little awkwardly in the silence. It seemed like Phil was lost in a memory and Grian didn't want to ruin it for him.  
  
 _Hisssssssss_  
  
Grian whirled around at the sound of a creeper ready to explode, his wings spreading as he did so, hitting something which was probably Phil. The small spines on his back, which normally fit comfortably under his sweater, rose, and Grian feared they would rip the magic sweater that allowed his wings to go through it without needing large slits in the back. Cub and Scar had given it to him when the wings first grew in, having used their Vex magic to make it.  
  
Grian winced as he heard a soft 'ow' come from the man behind him as h relaxed at not seeing a creeper but instead Dream with a smug aura around him. "Sorry Phil" he apologized, folding his wings and stepping to the side so that he wasn't standing directly between Dream and Phil.   
  
"It's okay mate" Phil responded, rubbing his face a little, "Your wings didn't hit me too hard.  
  
Grian still felt guilty. He turned slightly so that he was looking at Dream and sighed, "I should have expected that" He laughed sheepishly, "Doc does that all the time to people on Hermitcraft"  
  
"I wasn't intending to get a reaction like that," Dream admitted, "I just wanted to give you a little start," It was annoyingly hard for Grian to get a read of Dream. He'd never really talked to the speedrunner, and he couldn't read his expression because of the mask. "So, do you guys know why we are still here?" He continued.  
  
"I do," Phil revealed, "We're just waiting on Techno though."  
  
"He was reading over near the portal." Grian added in, "He seemed pretty into his book so he may not have seen the notification"  
  
"That sounds like Techno," Phil nodded before he started walking down the bridge, "We might as well go find him." So the trio made their way back to the portal. Grian, not about to pass up an opportunity to fly, flew above them, looking around occasionally to stay with them. He used this as a chance to practice the finer motions of flying -- being good with an elytra helped, but he still had to remember to flap his wings. They reached the sport where Techno was still reading and Grian tried to land as he would with an elytra, and failed. He heard Dream stifle a laugh and Phil says, "You need to work on your landings," while also trying not to laugh.  
  
"Hey!" Grian protested, "I don't fly with my wings much! This is only like the second time in the past week that I've used my wings!" Grian was surprised at how quickly he had opened up to these people. He barely knew them, yet he felt like he was talking to any one of the hermits.  
  
"Techno, mate" Phil addressed the piglin hybrid, snapping a finger in front of his face. Techno had apparently missed the whole interaction while reading. Or, Grian mused, just ignoring them.  
  
"Yeah, Phil?" Techno took a second to look up from his book, but he closed it as he looked at Phil, not even putting a bookmark in.  
  
"You missed the message that everyone still here was supposed to meet at the decision dome" Phil picked up the communicator lying on the ground a foot away from Techno and handed it to its owner, sitting down to the left of Techno. Grian sat down next to Phil, and dream sat down next to him so that they formed a small circle.  
  
"So, why are we still here, Phil? You said you knew," Dream asked after a minute of a somewhat awkward silence of people silently asking someone else besides them to speak up first.  
  
"Well, as you may, or may not know," Phil made eye contact with each of the three hybrids around him. Well, Grian assumed he made eye contact with Dream. the mask was really annoying. "I am the emperor of a hybrid empire known as the Bloodend Empire"  
  
"Wait, what?" Dream flinched backward and Grian saw a flash of surprise cross Techno's face before he schooled his expression.  
  
"Mhm, and about 20 years ago, I adopted three hybrids to become my heirs, Grian, you know that story, right?"  
  
"Yeah," Grian confirmed, "Ren told the hermits it not too long ago during a get-together. You adopted the three heirs, then they all disappeared in one way or another at a young age."  
  
"Yep. And, well, there's no way to really break this to you easily, but you three are my heirs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading!
> 
> ~Niza


	11. Chapter 10 - Technoblade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm just going to say right now to not expect an update next Sunday. I have a lot of stuff due this week for school, so I'm not going to have time to write the next chapter

"Excuse me!" Techno blurt out as soon as he processed Phil's words, "How am I supposed to be a violent anarchist when I am the Prince of a goddamn empire!"

"I'm sure you can figure something out, Techno" Phil smiled and pat Techno's shoulder comfortingly, causing Techno to flinch away from the sudden contact. Phil gave Techno a concerned look before he looked at the other two hybrids, Techno's... Adopted brothers...

Grian didn't seem to know what to think of the information just dropped on them, seeing as he was opening and closing his mouth silently.

Dream, well, it was always hard to tell how Dream was feeling. But judging from the way he was sitting, back straight, shoulders stiff, he was also surprised. Dream let in a sharp inhale before asking, "So, how did you not find us earlier? I mean, Dream isn't a very common name, neither is Technoblade and well, I haven't met anyone else called Grian."

"There's probably someone called Grian though, and it's not me!" Grian muttered good-naturedly and Phil laughed hearing what Grian said.

"Well, before you three went missing, your names were Dave, Clay, and Charles" He answered Dream, pointing to Techno, Dream and Grian respectively. "And your hybrid features hadn't grown in yet when you disappeared so we didn't really know what types of hybrids to look for. I'm assuming though that you don't want to go by your old names"

"Technoblade is a much cooler name than Dave" Techno instantly responded. "Dave is a kinda lame name"

"I'll keep going by Dream, thank you" Phil nodded to the two PvP oriented hybrids and looked at Grian, awaiting his response.

"I'll, I'll keep going by Grian." Grian responded hesitantly, "It's the name I remember best" He added the last bit quietly, though it was clear that everyone heard it. 

"You've had another name besides Grian and Charles?" Phil asked gently. 

"I don't really want to talk about it" Grian responded and he pulled his wings around himself. 

"That's okay, you don't need to tell us" Phil let the subject drop. "Anyways, shall we wrap up here and head to the empire?"

"Only if Ren can come with us," Grian said, standing up. "He said he'd wait on the other side of the portal for me."

"Ren, he was with you when you were researching the empire right?" Phil also stood up, Dream and Techno following his lead. 

"Yep"

"Then sure! Techno, Dream, do you have any friends that might want to come to the empire with us?"

"Do they have to be a hybrid?" Dream asked as they started walking to the portal, probably thinking of George or Sapnap.

"Preferably yes"

"Dream, if you're thinking about someone from your server, be careful of who it is because a lot of them kinda hate me right now" Techno warned before hopping through the portal, being the first one through. Techno almost immediately saw Ren waiting for Grian, "Grian will be through in a moment" he told the dog hybrid.

Dream was the next one through the portal, then Grian, and finally Phil. Dream had pulled out his communicator, most likely messaging the person he wanted to come with them to the empire. Grian went over to Ren and quietly muttered something to him. When Phil came through, Ren bowed his head as Grian continued to mutter things to him. "So, why are we going to the empire?" Ren asked as they started walking. 

Phil glanced around at the crowd around the five hybrids. "Well, that answer requires me to tell you some currently sensitive information not for public ears just yet. Is it okay if I answer that question once we get to the castle?" He replied

"Yeah, man! I couldn't exactly say no, you could probably execute me if I said no" Ren laughed.

"Would I really do that though?" Phil asked, through no answer was required. Phil was too nice to do that. "Is your friend meeting us at the portal, Dream?"

"Yeah, Bad's meeting us there" Dream responded, and Techno took a moment to process who was accompanying them to the Empire. 

"Wait, Bad?" He exclaimed, and Dream nodded, "Uh, is he one of the people that want me dead?"

Phil shot Techno a look that he would have missed if he blinked while Dream pondered the question, "Well, I think you may have killed him at the festival, but Bad's a pretty forgiving person. Besides, it's not like you targetted just him, you literally killed everyone else there. I think you'll be fine."

"I have so many questions now. We need to just have a night where we sit down and tell our life stories," Phil laughed.

Something in Phil's sentence must have caused something to click for Ren because he clapped his hands together and looked at Grian, "Hey, G, did you bring the book you checked out from the castle library and Niza told you to bring to MCC?"

"I did!" Grian responded happily, pulling out a book. "I guess I can return it sooner than I thought!"

"Ah, so you listened to Niza. They're an interesting person, they always seem to know what's happening, and what might happen in the future." Phil said as they approached the portal to the Empire.

"So, do you just go to them if you want to know what's going to happen?" Dream asked, before spotting bad, "Hey Bad!" He called, waving the Phoenix hybrid over.

"Hey, guys!" Bad greeted, jogging over. 

"Hello," Phil said before answering Dream's question, "No, I don't really go to them. They don't give out that much info about the future, so if they want me to know something, they'll come to me" A this point, they were about to go through the portal, having been able to skip the line due to Phil's status as Emperor.

As they went through the portal, the headache that had formed as they walked through the hub world, a small, barely noticeable throb increased tenfold, causing Techno to double over on the other side.

"You okay mate?" Phil asked as Techno straightened.

"Yeah, my head started hurting as we went through the portal. I feel fine now though." Techno replied as they walked away from the portal. And his head did feel better, the pain reduced to a dull throb he remembered being used to once. And then he heard it.

*-it work? I think it worked! We're back! Technolost? E. Blood for the Blood God! E. HUMINA HUMINA HUMINA HUMINA HUMINA. Shush! Don't give Techno a headache so soon!*

"Glad to see you're back Chat" Techno muttered, rubbing his temples. "We'll catch up later, play that counting game you like in the meantime."

*Okay! Ready guys? 1. 2. 3. 3. Well, now we have to start over! 1. 2. 3. 4...*

As Chat got into their game, they faded to the back of Techno's mind and he jogged to catch up with the others, having lagged behind while talking to Chat. Techno mostly listened to the conversation as they walked, not feeling the need to add anything.

When they reached the castle, Phil turned to the 5 people following him. He scratched the back of his neck and said, "Ren, Bad, I, uh wasn't expecting extra people to come, so there aren't any rooms prepared, uh-"

"That's okay!" Bad spoke up instantly, "I know someone right down the street I can stay with, and then I can come back in the morning!"

"And I can just stay at my parent's for-" Ren tried to say before Grian cut him off.

"No, Ren, stay!" He grabbed Ren's arm excitedly. "It'll be like the time in season six when we fell asleep in the RV while planning the invasion of Area 77!" Techno noted that Grian didn't seem to want to go anywhere without Ren. Which made sense when he thought about it. Techno and Dream knew each other, and Techno had met Phil fairly early on into his potato farming. But Grian only knew Ren.

"So, do you guys want a tour of the castle, or do you want to just go to your rooms?" Phil asked when they were inside.

"I'm pretty tired, can I just go to my room?" Techno responded. He was only partially lying, he was tired, but he mostly wanted to talk to Chat and figure out where they went.

"Yeah," Dream echoed, "I'm tired too"

"Alright, Grian? What about you?"

"I'm going to return this book and then I might jump Doc and see if he wants to join the little sleepover. I'll figure out where my room is *eventually*. The castle doesn't seem that big, how hard could it be?" Grian was bouncing from excitement, though that just seemed to be a part of his personality.

"Not that big?" Techno found himself asking/ "This is bigger than Eret's castle on the SMP!"

"Eh," Grian shrugged, "My mansion's bigger. A lot of builds on Hermitcraft are probably bigger than this actually!"

"Grian, that's Hermitcraft, everything's big there. Scar's built what? Two islands in the past couple of weeks?" Ren explained to Grian, "This castle was built a while ago when it was harder to get a lot of blocks to build big, especially when redstone farms didn't exist. "

"Yeah, but the Grian Empire was probably bigger than this, volume-wise at least. And let me remind you! Evo started in some of the earliest versions and the only blocks that looked good were stone, clay, and snow!"

"Evo was a pretty recent server though, wasn't it? It elf-destructed a little under three years ago. Why did you start so far back in versions?" Phil inquired

"Server experiment," Grian said shortly like he didn't want to talk about it, but Techno had a strange feeling that there was nothing more for Grian to talk about regarding the version.

The group fell into a short silence before Techno broke it, "So... You going to show us our rooms, Phil?"

"Oh, yeah!" Phil responded happily, "We'll go to Dream's first then your's Techno"

"Bruuuuhhh"

Phil led Techno and Dream to their rooms, though Techno was really only half paying attention to all the turns and stairs. Once he made it to his room, he closed and locked the door and window. He sat down on his bed, which was softer than he was used to, and said, "Alright, Chat. Explain." Techno braced himself for an onslaught of voices speaking over each other, saying many different things, but surprisingly, only one voice answered.

*Well, we disappeared during the Potato War because we- 'No, don't tell him that!' 'He can't know that!' Alright, so when you joined the SMP, we tried to come back but it was difficult. It's a really new world, so it's further away from- 'No! We're not supposed to tell him that either!' -We'll call it the core then, and this world is a really old world, and it's really, really close to our.. core.*

"So, Dream SMP bad and too far, this world really good?" Techno summed up.

*Yep! When you go back to the SMP some of us may be able to stay, but not all of us.*

"Sounds good, thank you-" Techno trailed off. Once, he had known the names of many of the voices, but now he couldn't remember.

*Behold Nonsense* the voice supplied.

"Ah, yes, I, I *completely* remember you" Techno picked at a pull in his pants absentmindedly.

*Yeah, and you didn't miss diamonds*A bunch of the voices replied at once.

"It was one time, Chat! One time!" Techno groaned and laid down on the bed. He wasn't sure he would have been able to fall asleep, but Chat started humming and singing softly, which helped Techno fall asleep in this unfamiliar place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter! If anyone who hasn't sent a hybrid persona for a cameo wants to make a cameo as one of the voices, just drop your name and preferred pronouns in the comments! But remember, you're only canonically a voice if you're subscribed to Technoblade!


	12. Chapter 11 - Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 11 guys!

Dream awoke to someone knocking on his door. He started out of bed, falling onto the floor in a tangle of blankets, "Hello?" He called, struggling to get up. 

"Prince Dream, I am here to escort you to the dining hall when you are ready"

"Alright, uh, one second!" Dream finally got up and hopped around the room, throwing on a pair of black jeans, his signature green sweatshirt, and his mask. He ran his fingers through his hair before opening the door. "Hello!" He greeted the fox hybrid standing outside his room. 

The hybrid bowed and said, "Prince Dream, if you will follow me please," before turning and walking down the hall. Dream followed doing his best to remember the turns and stairways so he could find his way back to his room later. They stopped in front of a large pair of doors. The hybrid bowed and walked off, leaving Dream alone. He opened the doors and saw everyone who had arrived to the empire with, plus another hybrid. Dream walked into the room and silently sat down next to Techno. He put a few pancakes on his plate and poured some syrup on them. 

"Good morning. Dream!" Phil greeted happily.

"G'morning" Dream replied, pushing his mask up just enough so that he could eat, revealing the light green skin that marked him as a creeper hybrid. 

"Oh, Dream!" Grian paused whatever conversation he had and directed his attention to Dream. "This is Doc, he's a creeper hybrid as well!"

For the first time, Dream focused on the hybrid he hadn't met in front of him. His skin was a darker green than his own, and half of his face and one of his arms were made of robotic parts, "Oh, hi"

"Hello" Doc responded and seemed to notice that Dream couldn't stop looking at his arm. "Don't mind the robotics, it was the result of a really failed TnT experiment from when I was younger. Damaged me so much I had to get this" Doc waved his robotic arm around before going back to eating. 

"So, are we doing anything today?" Dream heard Techno ask Phil and he turned his attention to them.

"Well, I was going to give you guys a tour of the castle, and then we need to go to the tailors to get some formalwear for public events," Phil replied after drinking some orange juice.

Barely a moment later, Techno got hit in the face with a frosted pastry. Slowly, he turned to look across the table, "Who threw that?" Ren and Grian pointed at each other, laughing, causing Techno to throw a pastry at each of them. 

The two hermits retaliated by throwing pancakes back at Techno, though Grian didn't seem to have very good aim, hitting Dream instead. "Food fight!" He yelled, standing up and throwing a muffin at Bad before dodging an attack from Techno. Dream grabbed a bunch of ammo and darted out of the line of fire. Vaguely, Dream was aware of Phil trying to stop them and Nightmare cheering him on, but Dream was too caught up in the moment to really notice.

It was hard to tell how long the food fight went on. But it most definitely ended when a stray pancake hit Phil in the face, and everyone froze as he slowly peeled it off his face. "Alright, I think that's enough, let us all get cleaned up, and then we can do the tour of the castle." He didn't sound too annoyed, and Dream swore he was trying to hold back a laugh. 

After everyone had cleaned up from the food fight- Dream took it as an opportunity to properly get ready for the day- they met up back in the dining hall, which had also been cleaned up. Phil led them through the castle, talking excitedly about the history of the castle. Occasionally, when he was showing off a stained glass window or a large painting, he would float in the air to better point out details. 

Dream was glad to have the tour, he liked knowing his surroundings. But hearing Grian asking question after question about architectural style here, and block palette there was starting to get on his nerves. He didn't particularly care about the building side of things. He was a speedrunner and a PvPer, he didn't need to know how to build. 

Techno seemed to be somewhat following along, nodding occasionally, though he looked spaced out and Dream heard him muttering under his breath a little, though he couldn't make out what the piglin hybrid was saying.

 _Bored?_ He heard the voice of Nightmare ask.

 _Well yeah, I dislike building_ Dream shot back. _Why are you here?_

_Well, I was bored, so I figured I'd see what you were up to. Unfortunately, this is actually more boring than the meeting I was in. I'll be going now_

_Wait, what meeting? Aren't you just inside my head?_ But Nightmare was gone. Dream felt a hand rest on his shoulder and he turned, his hand automatically going for a weapon that wasn't there. 

"Are you okay?" Bad asked quietly.

"Yeah, just, just talking to Nightmare" Dream responded just as quietly. Bad was the only person besides himself that knew about Nightmare because he too had a 'counterpart' as Bad called them, Goodboyhalo.

When the tour was finally over, the six of them went to the tailors that Phil always went to. It was public business, but they were ushered to another room as soon as they walked in. "How can I help you today, sir?" The tailor asked Phil. He was a small man with squinty grey eyes and straggly brown hair. He was wearing a nice suit and light cloak, not unlike the one Phil was currently wearing. 

"Rerir, I've told you time and time again, just call me Phil." Phil shook Rerir's hand happily. "And I'll be needing formalwear for these three." He pointed to Dream, Techno, and Grian. "Big announcement coming up and they need to be ready for it.

Rerir's eyes widened and he seemed to get what Phil was saying. "Oh, yes, yes, let's start with the phantom hybrid, shall we?" He took a tape measure from a drawer and lightly pushed Grian to stand on a raised platform. "You like wearing this red sweater?" He asked as he had Grian spread his arms and wings.

"Yeah, it's my signature thing" Grian responded, looking a little uncomfortable.

"And how would you feel about wearing a suit?"

"That's fine, just as long as it works with my wings and doesn't look like I work at a hotel" He responded, causing Ren to let out a small sort.

"It will be fine, don't you worry! I'll throw in a light cloak like mine and Phil's as well. It isn't a great time to be an avian right now, though Phil is doing his best to fix it!" Rerir finished taking Grian's measurements and shooed him off the platform. "The piglin hybrid now!"

Techno walked up and stood on the platform. "I'd like something similar to what I have now, please" He started, holding his arms out after taking off the fur-lined cloak.

"Of course! Of course!" Rerir started taking measurements as he spoke, "May I ask what your favorite color is?"

"Oh, uh, blue" Techno replied.

"Really?" Dream spoke up. "I thought it was pink!"

"Nah, the pink hair is actually a natural thing, if that's why you thought so. Blue's been my favorite color for a while. It's, uh, it's kinda the opposite of red, which is the color of blood, so..." Techno trailed off

"Ah"

"And now the creeper hybrid!" Rerir said as Techno stepped off the platform. Dream walked up to it and stood on it, spreading his arms. "Do you have any preferences for what I should make?"

"Uh, not really, as long as it is green and I can move around in it."

"Yes, yes, I can do that. I assume you would like to wear your mask for the announcement?"

"Yeah, I don't like people seeing my face" Dream responded instantly.

"Alright, I can make something with a hood then, so people can't see your face when looking from your side."

"Thank you" Dream thanked Rerir earnestly. After Dream was done being measured, they all left the tailors with a guarantee that their formalwear would be ready in a day. 

"You guys can go do what you want, I have to do some preparations for the announcement." Phil smiled as he addressed them right outside the castle before he flew up and into an open window of a tower. 

Dream turned to Techno and Bad, "Wanna spar?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I have a bit of a deilema. So, I don't know if you all noticed, but I've tried to give the princes something that Phil would be able to help them overcome. Grian has his memory issues, Techno has his bloodlust, and Dream was supposed to have Nightmare, but plans have changed, and now I have something different in mind for Nightmare. So if anyone has any ideas of what Phil could help Dream with, please drop a comment with your idea!
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> ~Niza


	13. Chapter 12 - Grian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big announcement and a new friend!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm introducing a new character that I'm sure you will either love, or have neutral feelings about. I don't think anyone would dislike the new character.

"Hello! I want to thank you all for coming today!" Phil greeted the assembly of people, "And thank you to the admins who are graciously allowing us to stream this announcement on main channels!"

Grian was sitting backstage with his adopted brothers. He couldn't help but to bounce his leg, and he kept spreading and folding his wings, tracing over old scars and small rips in them that was a result of reckless flying. Techno was reading another book, the same one Grian had just returned to the library about the history of the empire. He had a sword lying close yo him, and Grian saw his hand shift to it every so often. Dream was moving around, axe in hand, swinging at invisible enemies. They had kept the weapons they had used for sparring the other day. Grian almost wished he kept the sword he used when they dragged him into a spar he only half tried in. But it wasn't trident or the staff he had trained with for so long. 

"-important announcement for everyone!" Grian tuned back into Phil's speech as he got up and paced around the medium-sized room, carefully avoiding Dream's axe attacks. "As many hybrids know, for the last 20 or so years, I have been looking for my three adopted sons, two of which had vanished at a young age and the third presumed dead. Well, I'm pleased to inform you that we have found, not one, not two, but all three of my sons!"

Grian could hear the cheers of the crowd, which rang sharply through his ears. "You may know them," Phil continued after the cheers died down, "But let me introduce them!" At this point, Grian had stopped pacing, Dream put away his axe, and Techno had put away his book, again not using a bookmark. They were all standing in a line, staring at the small gap in the curtain that separated them from the rest of the world.

"First, the oldest, the one and only Technoblade!" Phil announced, and Techno slowly made his way onto the stage, "Next, the legendary speedrunner, Drem!" Dream also went up to the stage, more confidently than Techno did, leaving Grian alone, "And finally, Grian, master builder and member of the Hermitcraft server!" Grian walked out and immediately had to squint. There were so many lights and cameras. And the _people_ staring up at him had to be at least a thousand people. So many of them were clapping and cheering. But Grian didn't miss the looks of disdain directed towards him as he pulled the light cloak covering his wings tighter around him. 

There weren't many of these looks, but it felt like there were so many more. Grian could only seem to focus on them, the cheers fading into the background. Grian could feel himself starting to drift away, Phil's speech fading like the cheers, the faces in the crowd starting to blur. He felt his breath hitch as a hand was placed on his shoulder and he looked up to see Techno looking at him, "Stay with us Grian, I get how you're feeling, I hate this as much as you do, but we need to push through it." He said quietly. Gian nodded and looked back at the crowd, praying that this would all be over soon. Techno kept his hand on Grian's shoulder, which was ground him, and probably Techno as well, to the mortal world.

"Thank you all for coming to his event or tuning in live!" Phil finished up, "A cheer for the princes" He bowed, and Grian followed suit with Dream and Techno.

As soon as they got off the stage and away from the crowd, Grian practically collapsed on the ground. "that was so tiring, and I didn't even do anything!" He complained, and Techno nodded in agreement. 

"I thought it was okay." Dream shared, pulling down the hood of his cloak. They had all ended up wearing cloaks, though Phil's and Grian's were more obviously suited for Avians. 

"So, what do we do now?" techno asked, crossing his arms. 

"I was going to go on a walk in one of the quieter parts of the Empire, if that's alright, Phil?" Grian asked. 

"Yeah, that's fine mate, just call or message me if you get lost or something."

"Awesome! If anyone wants to come with me you're welcome to!"

"Nah, I've really had enough social interaction for the day, I might just head back to the SMP to grind for some more resources."

"Actually, Techno, could we talk back at the castle?" Phil interjected.

"That doesn't sound good." Techno said quietly, "Sure, I guess."

"See you guys later!" Grian turned and walked a few paces away from the group before unfolding his wings from under his cloak and taking off. He flew northwest, leaving the central city, and flying over a few spaced out towns. He was going over a large forest when he saw a small village nestled in the center of it. He dove down to the edge of it, performing a land that would have been risky for anyone else, but not the master flyer of Hermitcraft, even if he was using wings he wasn't fully used to. 

Grian allowed his wings to fold back under the cloak as he walked into the town. It was nice, and the architecture felt slightly more recent than the main city, which made him wonder if the outskirt of the empire had a modern architectural style. There weren't a ton of buildings, just a bunch of shops that seemed to double as houses surrounding a central plaza with a well. There were a lot of people for the size of the town, which made Grian pause for a moment before he saw a few streets with more buildings. He was able to merge into the crowd quite nicely, no one seemed to notice him.

Grian walked past the shops taking brief glances at what they were selling, though he didn't have any money on him so he couldn't get anything. He didn't even know what currency the Empire used for that matter. He debated pulling the prince card to get a bit of bread, but that didn't feel right, the baker had to have bought the ingredients to make the dough, so playing the prince card would be like glorified stealing. 

He was walking past the well when he heard a small sniffle. He turned and saw a tall teen sitting on the edge of the well. They were clutching a book tightly and muttering something. Grian walked up and sat next to them, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I-I don't remember..." The teen mumbled out, hugging the book close. "I don't remember, why didn't I write it down!"

"What don't you remember?" Grian asked gently. 

"My, my family," They stuttered out, "And I was only gone for a couple of months this time! How could I forget them..."

"Well, uh, if it helps, I don't remember much either."

"Really?" The teen looked up at Grian for the first time, and Grian noted the green and red eyes they had.

"Yeah, I don't actually remember most of my life up until like three years ago, only really bits and pieces"

"Hah, same, except I barely remember what I did last week, much less three years ago." The teen looked down and flipped through his book before looking back up at Grian, "Do I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar"

Grian shifted a little, "Well, I was just on TV, so that might be it."

"I haven't watched any TV recently though, except for the announcement about the princes..." the teen trailed off and his eyes widened, "You're-"

"Apparently yeah. According to Phil, I fell through a portal as a kid, and now I can't remember anything!" 

"That's amazing What's your name again? I'm sorry, names are just the hardest for me to remember."

"It's fine! I'm Grian, he/him pronouns." Grian had seen a thing not too long ago about including pronouns in introductions, and so he started doing it."

"I'm ranboo, he/they" The teen, Ranboo, introduced, also including his pronouns. "You're a phantom hybrid?"

"Yeah, and you're an enderman and a-"

"Something, I don't really know" Ranboo shrugged.

"Enderman and something hybrid then! It's great to meet you Ranboo!" Grian grinned, "I think this could be that start of a great friendship!"

"Yeah, I think it could be." Ranboo opened his book again and pulled out a pencil. Grian didn't look at what Ranboo was writing for the sake of privacy, but he swore he say his name, and on the line above it, 'Friends:'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder that if you want to see a scene written out in the book, feel free to drop a comment about what you want to see! Comments give me life and the motivation to keep writing this!
> 
> I'm proud to say that this book is officially the longest book I've written so far!
> 
> Thanks for reading
> 
> ~Niza


	14. Chapter 13 - Technoblade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't really have anything to say here lol

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Techno turned to face Phil. They were in his office, Techno supposed, a decently sized room right off the library. 

"I just want to know how you're doing. I've been hearing mutterings about what happened a few weeks ago on the server that you and Dream are on."

"Everything is under control Phil," Techno said firmly, not wanting to open that can of worms. 

"If you're sure, mate" Phil looked at Techno uncertainly as the piglin hybrid turned to leave the room.

*Blood! Kill! Blood for the blood god!*

"Shut up, Chat" Techno muttered.

"Techno, do you want to do some training? I could teach you how to might with a trident!"

"Sure, I guess" Techno shrugged as Phil left the office as well, closing the door behind him.

"Anything I need to know today?" Phil jokingly asked Niza as they passed the front desk.

"Remember that a squared plus b squared equals c squared" They replied instantly, also in a joking tone. 

"Bruh, I already know that, I used it ages ago in the Dream duel" Techno replied to their advice. 

"Well, did you know that logs are the inverses of exponents and that log base a of 1 is equal to zero and is the same as a to the zero power?" They shot back.

"Heh?"

"Niza's a math nerd." Phil provided an explanation, "Don't get 'em started on what they know" He added more quietly as they left the library.

"I can still hear you!" Phil just laughed.

The two walked through the castle until they reached a training ground, different from the one that Techno had used previously after they had gone to have their measurements taken. This one seemed more private, located at the back of the castle. The weapons, which were in an area off o the side, looked to be in better condition as well. Phil grabbed two tridents off the wall and tossed one over to Techno. 

"Now," Phil started, spinning his trident around casually, "Tridents are good weapons because they can be used for melee fighting, and long-range fighting, especially if it is enchanted with loyalty. Both of these tridents have loyalty on them." Techno looked at the trident in his hands and read the English translations of the enchantments: Loyalty III, Unbreaking III, Mending.

"For the trident to be truly effective weapons, you need to know how to shift your grip from melee attacking to being able to throw it. Have you ever done like, stick spinning, or spinning your sword around when you're bored?"

"What?" Stick spinning?

"Kinda like what I'm doing now with the trident."

"Are you sure there isn't a more technical term for that? But no, I haven't really."

"Okay, we can start with shifting your grip with two hands for now and I can teach you the one-handed one later."

Phil taught Techno some of the essentials of trident fighting before suggesting they spar to get practicing using the techniques at a battle pace. Techno nodded and got into a ready position, pushing the voices, who had just started screaming for blood, to the back of his mind. The spar started off normal, Techno somewhat sloppily holding his own against Phil. Everything was going fine until he accidentally nicked Phil with a prong of the trident. Everything was fine until the already crazy voices went crazier, and Techno's control snapped.

Techno's mind went blank, blood rushing through his ears as Chat went wild. He couldn't hear Phil calling for him to stop, only barely noticed that he probably wouldn't win this fight with an unfamiliar weapon. He didn't register himself lunging to the other weapons, or Phil stopping him from getting there. He needed blood. Somewhere, deep down, he knew that no, he couldn't hurt Phil. But he couldn't stop. He fought Phil, trying to get a sword or anything that could help him win this fight. But it wasn't him. It was, but it was also Chat, pushing him to keep going, getting louder and louder until, 

Silence.

Precious, glorious, silence. 

Techno realized that he was on the ground, his trident halfway across the arena, and Phil holding him down with his foot. "Techno?" He asked, placing his trident to the side and kneeling next to Techno. Techno just scrambled back, breathing heavily He stood up and staggered back, ignoring Phil. Chat was silent now, a few of them softly apologizing. "Techno are you okay?"

Techno couldn't find the strength to respond. He was in a daze as he made his way back to his room, not saying a word to Phil. He slammed his door shut and locked it, leaning against it and sighing He slid down until he was sitting on the floor. He held his head in his hands and let out a small groan, "Why does this happen Chat?" He asked though he wasn't expecting a coherent response.

_No idea. East. No clue. Ea- Shhh! We don't know! No one here knows, right guys? RIGHT! actually- Nope, shut up Twi, we can't tell him that_

"Tell me what?"

_Oh, it's nothing don't worry about it!_

"It doesn't sound like nothing. Twi, was it? Could you give me answers?"

_I can't, but go East, find answers there_

"East? That doesn't help me very much"

_Just go!_

"Okay, okay! Geez-" Techno got up and unlocked the door, stepping out and running into Phil, who looked like he was just about to knock.

"Where are you going?" He asked

"Out"

"Out where?"

"I don't really know, somewhere" Techno strode down the hall and eventually made it out of the castle. He dodged a crowd who tried to swarm him the moment he stepped out of the castle and headed East. Barely out of the main city, Techno reached a large wall that spanned as far as he could see and was at least 30 feet tall with no obvious way through or over it.

"Well, Chat, I've gone East, there's nothing but a wall that I'm not going to cross."

_Good! No need to cross it! We can go back to the castle now!_

"You guys really want to keep that secret, don't you" Techno commented, turning to go back to the castle.

"Who were you talking to?"

"No one!" Techno did _not_ shriek in surprise at Phil just appearing. 

"Really? Because it sounded like you were talking to someone" Phil looked at Techno accusingly. "Someone perhaps telling you to go past the wall?"

"They were actually telling me to not go past the wall because there was nothing there that concerns me. They're very insistent about it."

"Who are?"

"The voices" Techno replied mysteriously before darting away into the small crowd, trying to lose Phil. He turned into a small alleyway and ducked into an open cellar as he watched Phil fly past the alley.

Techno didn't know how long he had been in the city, but it was dark before he decided to head back to the castle, hoping Phil wasn't right there waiting for him. Thankfully, he wasn't, and Techno made it to his room and practically fell asleep right away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I made a discord for this book if you want to like chat about stuff. It's mostly for the book, but we can talk about other oneshots I post and I'll be doing polls for this book when I feel the need to! Here's the link:
> 
> <https://discord.gg/AgjwDzWEdZ>
> 
> Thanks for Reading!
> 
> ~Niza


	15. Chapter 14 - Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating last week, I had trouble writing the chapter. BUT, I do have the next chapter fully planned out!

The amount of attention that was on Dream was amazing. From the beginning people had been putting him down, telling him he wouldn't be successful. But he worked hard, rose up, and look where it got him. He was loved, adored, by so many people. He couldn't understand why his brothers hated it so much. 

_M_ _aybe it could be the situation they were raised in? Or they have social anxiety and don't like being in the spotlight_

_Oh, shush. Let me enjoy my moment. Go back to like your meeting or something, whatever that was about_

_I don't actually have a meeting or anything right now. It's a Saturday, why would I have a meeting?_

_I don't know! Why would you have a meeting anyway? All I know about you is that your name is Nightmare, you live in my head, rent-free, and you're apparently my counterpart._

_Wow, they really don't teach you much about counterparts, huh? Even I know more than you and-_ Nightmare's voice cut off and Dream frowned behind the mask.

_Nightmare?_ No response, _Nightmare?_ He tried again to no avail. 

Dream was a little worried about his counterpart, but he was mostly wondering what Nightmare had been about to say. He continued to wander through the streets of the main city, greeting everyone who came up to him. He spotted Phil gliding overhead, just barely clearing the taller buildings, and Dream waved him down. The area in front of Dream cleared as Phil landed, mostly everyone keeping a respectful distance between them and Phil as they bustled along, though he did see a smaller snow fox hybrid bump into Phil, presumably accidently given how profusely they apologized, but Phil just waved it off. 

"Have you seen Techno at all?" Phil asked after a brief greeting.

"No, why?" What did Techno do? Phil looked a little upset at the question and Dream hoped he didn't make him mad

"I found him out by the East Wall, which is there for a reason, looking like he was trying to cross it and talking to someone even though there was no one else there. I asked him what he was doing and who he was talking to, but all he said was 'the voices' and darted off." Phil explained. "And now I can't find him."

"Well, he'll have to come back to the castle eventually, right?" Dream reasoned, "I wouldn't worry about it too much, he did this on the Dream SMP recently- he kinda just disappeared for a bit after the festival."

Phil seemed to relax a little at his words. "I'll be heading back to the castle, message me if you need anything!" He took off and returned to the sky, flying towards the castle.

Dream continued to walk through the main city. He was tempted to leave the city to explore some of the other parts of the Empire, but he didn't feel like getting lost just yet. He had a better sense of direction than most, the manhunts and dragon hunts, in general, being proof of it. But it was easy to get turned around and he couldn't fly up to get his bearings like Grian could. 

He had dozed out a bit as he walked, briefly snapping back to reality when someone would ask him for a photo or an autograph. It wasn't every day that you meet a renowned speedrunner after all. Dream was enjoying himself for the first time in a while.

His good mood shattered apart as he heard someone yell, "Oh, Dream!" in the same exact way the hunters would. Then another hybrid did it, and a third, then fourth until almost the whole crowd was doing it. Dream was extremely glad that he had his mask on as he pushed through the crowd. He wasn't fully registering where he was going; he just needed to get to the really big building he knew he was staying at. 

Dream blinked and now he was running towards a nether fortress, the hunters hot on his tail. Another blink and he was running to try to kill the dragon. A final blink and he was back in the Bloodend Empire, rushing through the halls of the castle. 

"Dream, are you okay?" He heard someone call.

"No!" He replied instinctivly before silently cursing himself. He shouldn't have said that. Finally, he reached his room, going in and slamming the door shut. His hands were shaking too much to lock it so he just sat down on his bed, winded. 

He tried to slow his breathing, but every time he calmed down a little, their voices sprang into his mind. The hunters were around any corner. He couldn't rest, he needed to move. Get away from them. He couldn't lose. He-

"Dream?"

Dream's breath hitched as he let out a small hiss, looking up and fully expecting to see one of the hunters there. But it was just Phil. "Dream, I need you to focus on my voice" He was saying. Phil was sitting a little ways away from him, both of them on the floor. Dream must have slopped off the bed at some point. "Dream, is it okay if I touch you?"

Dream shook his head and curled into himself, still breathing heavily. "Okay, Dream, focus on your breathing for me. Deep breath in, now" Dream followed Phil's instructions, though he couldn't take a very deep breath before he had to exhale. "It's okay Dream, let's try it again. Breath in for four and a slow exhale." Dream did this, his breath calming down a little.

"Good job Dream" Phil congragulated, "Now, can you tell me five things you can see?"

"Uh, you," Deep breath in, and exhale, "the floor, the bed." Another deep breath, "the edge of my mask, and my sweatshirt."

"Great job Dream. Now, what are four things you can feel?"

"My clothes, the ood floor, uh, I can feel a bit of the rug, *it's really fluffy*, and uh," Dream hesitated and he felt Phil pace his hand on his knee. 

"Almost there Dream, you got this"

"And your hand"

"Great job! Now, three things you can hear."

"You, my breathing, and uh, the crowd outside." Dream felt conscious of his breathing again and forced himself to slow it a little more.

"You're doing awesome Dream, nearly done. Now, two things you can smell"

Dream breathed in through his nose, taking in the smells. "I smell, gunpowder, and it smells like it's going to rain soon?"

"I'll keep that in mind," Phil laughed, "Now, last one Dream, what's one thing you can taste?"

"Uh," Dream licked his lips, "The milkshake I had at lunch?"

"Great job, Dream, how are you feeling now?"

"A little better" Dream replied honestly, moving to sit on the bed again, Phil getting up to sit next to him.

"Do you want to talk about it? I won't push, but it might be good to."

"Not really," Dream sighed, "but I think I should, in case it happens again" Dream closed his eyes and took a shaky breath, "Back when I would hunt the dragons a lot, more than I do now, sometimes the hunts would be streamed from my perspective, sometimes with hunters hunting me" Dream opened his eyes and looked at Phil. "The hunters were always my closest friends, and we got along great outside of the hunts" Dream paused and took a couple breaths.

"Take your time," Phil said gently.

"In the hunts they seemed like completely different people, not hesitant to kill me at all. And, so often, while I was running from them, they would yell, 'Oh, Dream' in the same way, every time. That's what caused it. The hunts weren't streamed to many people initially, though I know some got out to the public, I wasn't expecting to hear anyone say it. But one person said it, then two, three, four, until the whole crowd was shouting at me, the same two words" Dream clenched and unclenched his fist a few times as he looked down. he felt Pil lightly place a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm here for you mate. I can't fully understand what you are going through, but I'm here."

"Thanks, Phil."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say, thank you guys so much for 8K hits and 500 kudos. I really appreciate the support, which is motivating me to continue writing!
> 
> Thanks for Reading!
> 
> ~Niza
> 
> P.S. what if I did a qna? Would you guys like ask questions? Let me know if you would be interested. FYI, I would most likely do it in my discord, but I want to know what you guys think!

**Author's Note:**

> Chapters are probably going to start a little shorter, but hopefully they'll become longer as the book progresses!
> 
> Edit: Feel free to joinn the discord!
> 
> <https://discord.gg/AgjwDzWEdZ>


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